Nameless King

"What is this...?" Nila muttered, pressing her palm against her chest while waves of shivers ran through her body. Her heart began to beat much more frequently than usual as if facing a mortal danger whose arrival was absolutely inevitable.

The ground as well as space trembled, though Gael didn't do anything yet, he just raised his sword high up. This time he didn't even use energy or ash, just pure physical power and a wind that couldn't get past such an epicenter of power.

The spectators tried to understand the nature of Gael's power, while Ereg prepared to take his opponent's crushing attack. He had to do it as it was the beginning of their next time, and Ereg was already prepared for him to lose.

'Damn... More scars... Looks like this is a whole other level, I need to prepare properly.' Ereg muttered internally before crossing his claws.

All the energy that Ereg still had after absorbing the phantoms traveled toward his claws, making the darkness much thicker and more powerful.

"Trying to defend yourself? Well, I'm afraid that won't help you." Gael uttered with a slight smile on his face before stepping forward.

Crackle. Crackle. Crack.

The ground beneath him cracked as if he weighed as much as a hundred-meter giant, though destroying the floor wasn't even his goal.

At the same moment, Gael channeled some of his energy into his sword, causing his weapon to tremble due to the array of snow-white essence. His energy now had a much greater concentration and absolute purity as all beings equal to him in power. 

Ereg's eyes went wide as Gael swung his sword, and a white light blade flew forward.

Gael did not use flame or his primary weapon, ash. He realized that it wasn't necessary, his goal was to show Ereg that they were now on completely different levels.

If Ereg wanted to continue fighting and have a chance to win, he had to do something and increase his strength as well.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

The light blade effortlessly cut through the ground of the arena, leaving behind a wide gap like a giant canyon.

Ereg hadn't expected Gael's attack to be so powerful, so he decided to break his claws, turning them into phantoms. The phantoms gave up their darkness to cover Ereg's palms with a small but extremely strong, and thick layer of darkness.

"Not bad... In this way, it reduced the area of defense but greatly increased the quality, about twice as much." Liang uttered in a deep voice, "However, it is unlikely to help him."

Nitra, watching the light blade heading towards Ereg, bit her lip. She was nervous, but not because she was worried about Gael or Ereg, she was worried about something else.

'Fuck... They haven't even used their Forms yet, but their power is already equal to mine even after absorbing the space energy from the dark crystal. How is that possible? Why is Gael so strong...? No, he's a monster just like Alucard, there's a reason why these two have gotten such titles and are friends...

More importantly, how does Ereg manage to keep up? Moreover, he's already managed to win in two rounds!' Nitra internally exclaimed, trying to understand why, with their equal status, their strengths weren't as equal.

They were at the Transcendence Stage and were Progenitors, but there was still a difference between them. Nitra wasn't jealous, she was just annoyed when she couldn't understand why certain things were happening.

"Hey, you shouldn't be filling your head with something so useless." Liang uttered, easily guessing what Nitra was thinking, which made her eyes go wide in shock. 

"What...? What are you talking about?" Nitra raised an eyebrow, not believing that Liang could understand what she was thinking.

"Agh..." Liang sighed, shaking his head, "I'll be honest. When I made that attack, after activating my the Form for a second, I was surprised by the result."

"Hmm?" Nitra gave him a questioning look.

Liang shrugged, "I thought there wouldn't be a single piece of you left, not even a drop of blood. However, your body somehow managed to withstand the pressure, though without Alucard's help, you would have died, but that's not what I'm talking about. You gained new powers during the battle, so it's unlikely you've fully mastered them yet."

Nitra's eyes went wide, she didn't know why but she felt her heart start to beat faster, not because of Liang but because of his words about her strength. She wanted to go further and get on top with the others and be one of the best among the strongest. All she needed was a plan, at least a ghostly image of a plan.

"Perhaps if you fully learn how to use your power, you can even get on the same level as them." Liang uttered, pointing at Ereg and Gael.

By now, the light blade had almost reached its target, and Ereg was ready to block this attack. He had done all he could, so now he was using the most powerful defense he was capable of.

Nitra nodded deeply, then she smirked and asked, "Hey, what about you?"

Liang shrugged, "I don't know. We'll have to fight again to find out. However, I'm not sure you're ready for that."

Nitra frowned slightly, but she didn't say anything. She realized that if Liang wanted to, he would have killed her in a few attacks. In fact, she had both him and Alucard to thank for the fact that she was alive and could watch the fight now.

Whooooooooooooooooooosh.

Powerful streams of wind reached Ereg, and then a moment later, a light blade appeared right in front of him.

His reaction and speed were enough to grab the blade and clamp it between his palms, bringing down tremendous pressure. Given the layer of darkness and Ereg's physical strength, any weapon would have broken in such a situation, however, this was a whole other level and a moment later Ereg's feet entered the ground.

Crackle. Crackle. Crackle.

Being in the center of the arena, Ereg was quickly moved closer to the wall, since the light blade simply dragged him forward without stopping.

The blade couldn't cut through the protective layer of darkness, so it would try to do so until it ran out of energy or until Ereg's defenses fell.

Ereg's eyes went wide as he clenched his teeth tightly, straining his muscles to the limit. He expected to stop and break the light blade even if it took serious damage. However, he was unable to stop the blade even for one second.

'Shit! When I reach the wall, I'll lose my balance for a moment! I have to think of something right away!" Ereg internally exclaimed while his mind was working at maximum capacity.

However, soon all this ceased to matter as Ereg saw a sly smile on Gael's face, although it was in fact a very ordinary smile.

Gael thrust the sword into the ground, not intending to use it, and then the scars on his palms shone brightly, filling his hands with unusual power. He pointed his two palms in parallel, keeping a distance between them equal to the length of his sword.

Then, he slowly halved that distance while his fingertips shone brightly, releasing strands of white energy.

The threads, like a living organism, created a ghostly copy of the blade that Ereg was now attacking.

Thus, when Gael finished, the light blade had sharply become half its size, but its power remained the same as the energy became more dense and concentrated in a single point.

At the same moment, Ereg's darkness began to burn and the speed at which he was approaching the arena wall increased several times.

"Agh... Ereg, you should have gone straight to the next stage and you wouldn't have to go through this again." Gael uttered, watching as Ereg's back collided with the dense stone wall of the Colosseum. 

Most of the darkness had already burned away and as Ereg assumed due to the collision he lost control for a short period of time which was a big problem for him.

The light blade continued to press down on Ereg, burning away his darkness and leaving him no choice but to lose.

'Damn! Just a little more! Even if I hurt my palms, but I can break this blade it will be worth it!" Ereg inwardly exclaimed, trying with all his might to hold back his darkness, burning particles of it flying before his eyes. 

'Well, it's your choice.' Gael sighed before spreading his palms apart, instantly increasing the length of the light blade by over five times.

The blade became much thinner and faster, effortlessly piercing through the barrier wall, slicing it in two, and creating a hole in it that the light blade passed through with Ereg.

Then, there was nothing more left of the darkness and the full power of the light blade crashed down on Ereg's broad chest, causing him to feel intense pain.

His eyes went wide, his face contorted in agony and a stream of blood gushed from his mouth while the light blade dragged him further away from the colosseum and slowly dissipated.